Abby faces

I can't get this girl to smile like a normal person!  So instead, we'll have a well documented goober baby to contend with.  :P  I happen to capture a variety of her faces lately so here they are in no particular order:

Smile!

This is one of Abby's favorite past times - walking around in her cup shoes.  This is her "just another day" face.

This is her content face.

Bryce was outside grilling and watering the garden so this is her "longing for Daddy to come back inside" face.

This is her latest favorite face to make.  Her "I'm so mad" face which is easily remedied by some tickles.

Her mischevious face.

Her "I love mien mien" face!

Her "my first ear infection much needed nap" face.

Hooray for rain, Boo for heat

We definitely welcomed the rain last week and Abby had fun playing outside after her nap.  I wanted her to play IN the rain but by the time she woke up, the rain stopped.  It was nice for me because Bryce was out of town last week and because it rained, I didn't have to water the back yard!  That's about 30 less moquito bites for me.

This is how she smiles now - silly girl!  Her legs are getting so long!  She's almost 36.5" tall!

She had so much fun sticking branches into the small puddle holes in the street.  I love how she prefers nature's toys to her plastic toys.  :)

We eat a lot better when Bryce is home.  Here's a picture of him at his favorite station.  :)

This past Saturday was Elliott's 1st birthday party and it was a huge success!  Although I did not take any pictures of the actual party, we stayed after the party so the cousins could play and they had a BLAST!  It was SO. HOT. outside so both babies were stripped down to their diapers and they felt much better.  At one point we got out the pool and they both played around naked - it was so much fun for them and they were definitely cooled off!  Then they were back in diapers and enjoying the afternoon.  Us grown ups were hot too but we had plenty of beer to keep us cooled off.  Here are a few pictures of the cousin fun time!

Apparently playing with ice on the floor is a lot of fun!  :)

Abby kept dipping her feet into the cold water.  Silly baby!

The  birthday boy had to go in for a nap.  Love those rolls!

Elliott found a comfortable spot to sit while eating a moon pop.

Abby dipping into Elliott's Cheerios stash!

On our drive home at around 7 PM, I drove while Bryce and Abby proceeded to pass out immediately and this is where they landed while I unloaded the car.  Keep in mind we were all so gross and sweaty from being outside for several hours so I wasn't really happy about this but what can you do? 

On a potty training note, we're thoroughly impressed with Abby's progress!  She tells us when she needs to potty and hasn't wet a diaper at all while we are at home.  She'll only wet her diaper when we're out running errands or at camp.  It's so exciting for all of us!  It's also exciting that she's let me tie her hair into a ponytail lately.  She only lets us do it while she's eating and rips that ponytail out the second she takes her last bite.  But hey, it's progress!

Random update - it's been a while

I realized I haven't chronicled a lot of Abby's new anything in a while, which defeats the purpose of this blog all together!  This might be long winded so please feel free to skip down to the pictures.  :)  Here goes the list off the top of my head:

1.  Potty training - we sort of took the slow route where we just encourage her to go.  We started before the Taiwan trip and she would pee when she woke up in the morning and again when she woke up from her afternoon nap.  That all went straight out the window while in Taiwan for 2 weeks so we had to start all over.  What started out as a few pees a day has turned into 4-5 pees a day and she's been pooping in the potty for a few days now.  We are in the pull-ups phase and I am trying to teach her to take her own shorts and diaper off.  Perhaps I should have taught her that earlier - I forgot!  No matter, she still pees in the diaper 3 or 4 times a day but I'd say over 50% is in the potty and all the pooping is in the potty.  We are definitely using less diapers now, which is always a plus for the wallet.  Oh, and her reward for each excrement is JELLY BEANS! 

2.  We have been in full fledged sentence mode for a few weeks now.  We still get a couple fragmented sentences with incorrect grammar but we're slowly working on that too.  It's SO nice to know what is going on in that little head of hers.  She LOVES to sing and I think listening to the songs everytime we're in the car or even hanging out at home has helped improve her speech.  Her favorite thing to say incorrectly is "need want" as in "Mommy, need want to potty."  She still LOVES to read books.  I'm still reading about 10 books a day to her over and over. 

3.  She's been to her Gymboree Summer Camp class twice now and her teacher said she did better the second time.  Only cried a little and needs to be held/cuddled a lot in the beginning.  Seriously, no surprise there.  By the time they do their art work, she's all better. 

4.  Some stats - she's 32+ lbs now and really tall.  I need to measure her on her growth chart.  I'm assuming she's still in the 90%.  Yet she's still small enough to lie on my tummy like she did as a baby and I love it.  She's still in size 8.5 wide shoes and is outgrowing 2T and wearing 3T and sometimes even 4T now.  Wowzer - I can't even believe it.  She's starting to be all legs like her Daddy (and somewhat like me).  I still contend she'll be taller than me eventually.  My prediction is 5'9".  It's safe to assume her head still remains >98% like usual as well.

5.  Her likes - jelly beans, reading, shopping (Target, Costco, HEB, B&N (aka book store)), playing with her kitchen, playing outside with rocks and sticks (the best), helping Daddy with the garden, MILK, bread, CHEESE, noodles, goldfish and the oldie but goodie, Cheerios, swimming, any kind of art work and popsicles.

6.  Her dislikes - the process of going to sleep, tying her hair into a ponytail or anything besides a bow, for that matter, mangos and me holding anyone else's baby.

7.  She's been sleeping in her big girl bed (crib turned into toddler bed) for a few weeks now and she has yet to crawl out and wander around the house.  I got her a new crib sheet set and she actually sleeps with a comforter (instead of her baby blankets) and she uses a pillow and she looks like such a big girl!  The most exciting part for her is when she climbs in and out of bed by herself.  We are not allowed to help her or we get "No, I do it!"  Lately she's been napping in our bed (on Daddy's side) and sleeping in her big girl bed at night. 

8.  Her latest obsession is with all the Disney princesses.  I try to avoid all the princessy stuff but since I'm a huge Disney freak, it was inevitable.  I just don't like calling her a princess and I'm totally anti-tutu type stuff.  I guess that's the tomboy part of me.  But I've been collecting Disney DVD's for about 15 years now so you name it, I've probably got it and Abby will watch an entire movie.  Her attention span rocks.  Having said all that, she still loves to play with toy cars.

9.  Most importantly, Abby can now do the Hook'em Horns sign with both hands while she says Texas Longhorns!!  We are sooo ready for football season to start!

On to random pictures from the past week or so.  It's been a lot of Abby and me time since our return from Spain.  She's still quite clingy but part of that is because Bryce was out of town again this week.

Hook'em!

Rare photo of me and Abby.

Bryce and Abby napping when he returned from Europe.  One was napping and one was jet lagged.  :)

I take pictures of her with all of her art work which will eventually all go in a Snapfish photo book.  This is one of her t-shirts from Spain.

We really like this hand print.  It's been a while since one of these.

Pool day at Grandparents house last Satruday.  Eating a blue popsicle while it melts/drips down her arm to her legs.  Nothing a little dip back in the pool couldn't clean.  :)

Abby's Lion puppet

Painted animal crackers glued on paper to continue the Circus theme.

Big girl bed.  :)

Happy Father's Day!

This was the first Father's Day that Abby was big enough to understand and it made it sooo much more fun!  While we were in Spain, Grandma and Grandpa helped Abby make a card and painting for Daddy and Abby was able to give it to her Daddy on Saturday.  She was so proud and we were equally proud of her!  Good job, Abby!  :)

"Here you go, Daddy!"

Abby's beautiful art work and handmade card with hand prints.  :)

This was taken today on Father's Day.  Daddy and his sweet baby girl!

This may be the shortest video ever but we love it.  She related Mother's Day to a birthday too - I suppose because we celebrate all of them.  Maybe you had to be there but we thought it was funny!

She is her father's daughter, Tooth #18

Abby has been going to Gymboree classes since she was 16 months old and really enjoys it, looks forward to it every week and adores her teacher.  In these classes, I stay with her at all times and parents are encouraged to participate as much as possible.  Abby starts Mother's Day Out (MDO) this September and I've already started worrying about how she would handle class without me by her side.  Lucky for me, Gymboree has already thought of this so now Abby is signed up for Gymboree Summer Camp instead of her usual class.  It's for 2 hours once a week and I actually drop Abby off and come back to get her.  The purpose of this camp is to get kids ready for school/mother's day out/daycare - being dropped off, scheduled snack time, potty time, lesson plans, etc.  And since Abby is already comfortable and familar with the Gymboree classroom, it's a great transition for her. 

Well, today was our first day and I'd say it was a success!  I was able to say bye-bye and sneak away without any crying (for either of us).  I got coffee with another mom.  Her son and Abby have been in the same Gymb class for over 6 months.  When I picked her up, they said she cried a bit when she saw some other mommy's but her teacher just held her (Abby wanted to cuddle - no surprise) and then everything was ok.  They said she never cried again but she definitely had tears in her eyes as if she was going to cry again sometimes.  But her teacher also said she did everything else really well.  She came home with 2 new art works.  They said she stood back and just observed a lot and slowly started to particpate.  Again, no surprise.  This is a huge step for our little girl and we are so proud of her!  It doesn't help that Bryce and I were away from her for so long recently.  She's been extra cuddly/clingy lately.

As my title suggests and as I've stated before, Abby is just a little girl version of her Daddy.  Even Grandma confirmed our suspicions.  Abby is very comfortable around family but super shy in public settings.  Yet oddly enough, she'll let anybody hold her, albeit with an intense suspicious look in her eye the entire time.

In our absence lately, I just now noticed Abby's 18th tooth came out - bottom right molar.  Again, we are so thankful she does not have any teething horror stories.  It's just another day for her.  I can't post without a quick video.  Our little one LOVES to sing (into her maraca microphone) and we are currently on a huge Disney kick.  Here she is singing 'When You Wish Upon A Star,' although in this video, she's just repeating "Makes no difference who you are."

Spain Trip Part II: Madrid

As I mentioned before, I tagged along with Bryce on a work trip to Madrid so while he was working every day, I found many things to do and see to keep me occupied.  I used to travel 80% of the time for work and really grew to enjoy and appreciate the solitude so I was really looking forward to my 3 days of 100% "me" time. 

We stayed in the luxurious Westin Palace, Madrid which is located in the heart of Madrid.  This was our "premium view" from our hotel window.

Fuente de Neptuno

Fountain of Neptune

On my first morning, I decided the best way to get familiar with the city was to take a Segway Tour!  I've always wanted to ride a Segway (seen one too many Galleria Security Guards zipping around on them) and it was everything I thought it would be and better!  It literally takes 30 seconds to get acclimated and then you're off!  In case you're wondering, the closest thing I can think of that is simiar is skiing - but different.  I highly recomment it (they have SegCity Tours in the US too) - it was worth every euro!  Here are a few pictures from my 3 hour tour.

Me on my Segway.  If only I had an extra $4K lying around....

Plaza Mayor

This was built in 1617 and you can't tell from my picture but it is rectangular in shape.  It has been used for markets, bullfights, soccer games and even public executions!

Palacio Real de Madrid

Royal Palace of Madrid

This is only a snippit of the royal palace and I was able to watch the Changing of the Guards on the palace square.

Catedral de Ntra. Sra. de al Almudena

Almudena Cathedral

This cathedal faces the palace across the square and my tour guide said this is where the royal weddings are held today.

Puerta del Sol

Gate of the Sun

This is Madrid's equivalent to New York's Time Square.  This is where people gather to celebrate the new year but on this occasion, I got to witness a political protest.  From what I could gather, it is was a bunch of young people protesting over high unemployment rates.  Apparently Spain has the highest rate in all of Europe.  This had been going on for days and it was considered a peaceful protest.  I saw signs that said "REVOLUTION O NADA!"  But in reality, this whole area smelled like 2,000 (literally) homeless people and fresh port-o-potties.  As a foreign tourister, it sort of ruined the Puerta del Sol experience yet I was glad to witness a historical moment.

On my second day, I decided to visit a museum called Museo del Prado.  This one happen to be right next to our hotel and it did not disappoint.  I spent 3 hours in this museum - something that I could NEVER convince Bryce to do with me.  The museum was currently showing an exhibit on The Young Ribera which I thoroughly enjoyed viewing.  

Museo del Prado

I laid out on the grassy knoll on the left of this picture for about 3 hours after touring the museum and just read my book.  This was the most relaxing and enjoyable day of the entire trip and exactly what I needed.  I felt recharged and rejuvinated after this peaceful day.

On our last night in Madrid, Uyen, Bryce and I went out for dinner and I finally remembered to take pictures of our food.  I forgot the name of the restaurant but we had delicious tapas (again) and I will miss all the delicious red wine.

Shrimp pancakes and calamari.  This was the biggest and best calamari I've ever had.  I will be dreaming about these again tonight - super soft and fried to perfection.

I wasn't about to leave Spain without eating paella.  I even bought safron in Madrid so I can't wait to use it at home!

Grilled beef and chips

K Team Reunion - like my wine stained teeth??  This was an awesome way to end our long trip.  :)

The flight back was fairly uneventful.  I was too excited to sleep on my flight back from Newark because I was sooo completely excited to see Abby at the airport!!  Grandma helped her make a "Welcome Home Mommy" sign and it made me so proud and melted my heart at the same time.  We were both so excited to see each other and we hugged and kissed and hugged and kissed some more and true to my prediction, we still haven't let go.  I'm so glad she's a little cuddle bug because we get to fill each other's cuddle bug buckets until it overflows! 

I love you Xiao Xiao!

Spain Trip Part I: Palma de Mallorca

Hola!  I'm currently in Madrid, Spain accompanying Bryce on a business trip that I could not pass up.  While he's literally out being wined and dined, I'm alone in our luxurious hotel passing time by blogging.  I figured I'd better do it now before I forget the names of all the places and things I've seen.  Keep in mind, I'm not a great photographer so don't expect this to be some sort of geography or history lesson.

We began our trip by flying to Palma de Mallorca, a beautiful island off the East coast of Spain.  Although I've never been to the Carribbean, I imagine it's Spain's equivalent for the US.  The intent of this part of our trip was to relax and I can wholeheartedly say, mission accomplished.  While the city of Palma has a lot of history, it's largely a tourist town now with all of its beautiful beaches.  We stayed in one of the beach front resorts and did our best to be lazy with only enough energy to seek out delicious food.  Here are a few pictures from our 3 day stay. 

View of the Mediterranean Sea from our balcony.  We were lucky to have perfect weather during our stay, which meant the water was cold!

Another view from the restaurant balcony.  We spent many hours lounging around here and it was blissful.  And yes, there were a few topless women.  The first "pair" we saw belonged to a very pregnant woman.  It put the rest of them to shame - haha!

Our resort was actually in a town called Illetas, about a 20 minute drive from Palma.  We rode the bus to Palma each night for dinner (all I can say is tapas, tapas y mas tapas!) and had a chance to explore the city.  Of course, there is no shortage of cathedrals in Spain and this was one of them.  My favorite part of a cathedral is the rose window, followed by flying buttresses. 

Back in Illetas, I can proudly say that I swam in the Mediterranean Sea!  Well, techically it's the Balearic Sea which is a body of water IN the Mediterranean Sea but that doesn't sound near as impressive since I guarantee only a few know where that is (hence my handy dandy hyperlink above).  It's hard to tell from this picture but I swam from behind the rocks on the left to just on the other side of the picture on the right (basically from one cove to another).  The water was painfully cold, which explains why it took me about 10 minutes to get my entire body submerged.  At first when I swam away from the rocks, I think I had a small anxiety attack at the sudden realization that I was bobbing around vulnerably in an open sea!  As you can see from the picture, my fear was irrational as there was practically no current at all.  But still, those that know me know I'm not exactly a water person so this was quite a feat.  I kept thinking about how much I would regret it if I didn't at least try. 

Carpe diem!

This is visual proof that Bryce CAN read!  It's a miracle he made it through high school and college.  He can barely get through a child book with Abby but guess who was able to turn over this new leaf for Bryce.  None other than...Tina Fey!  I already read her hilarious book Bossypants and I cannot even begin to describe how many uncontrollable, laugh-out-loud moments there are in this book.  I guess all my guffaws did not go un-noticed because it was enough to peak Bryce's interest and he actually started reading it on his own!  My goodness, I would say the sight of Bryce reading a book is as common as a lunar eclipse but even that is too frequent.  But alas, now I have proof to show Abby that her daddy really isn't the illiterate he claims to be.

I can't post without expressing how much we miss our little Abby.  She is safe and sound at Grandma and Grandpa's, no doubt having the time of her life but we miss her hugs and kisses.  I can't say it's gotten any easier considering we've been gone for 7 days now.  It's just a constant level of missing her that can only be remedied once I have her in my arms (and I probably won't let go for at least 3 days...).  We'll see you soon Xiao Xiao and we love you!